December 16, 2013 - Unmanned Aircraft Systems
(UAS) vendors and end-users in the United States
wait rather impatiently as the Federal Aviation
Administration works on regulations that will
allow the use of drones or unmanned aerial
systems for commercial applications.

In California a number of real estate companies
are now using UAS drones to give buyers an up
close view of properties without having to go
out to the properties. At the present time this
is illegal.

It is not illegal for a private individual to
fly an unmanned aircraft for non commercial use.
However, if an individual flies an unmanned
aircraft for commercial use it is against the
law.

In a report released today by the Department of
Transportation titled “Top Management Challenges
For Fiscal Year 2014” DOT reported that the FAA
predicts there will be roughly 7,500 small
commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in 5
years. These UAS will be used in such areas as
agriculture, construction sites, infrastructure
inspection, wildlife research, prospecting,
storm tracking and forecasting, emergency
response an environmental monitoring.

Integrating UAS in domestic US airspace will
impact several FAA lines of business and
offices, including safety and air traffic
modernization. In 2012, FAA appointed a senior
executive to lead its UAS Program Office. In
2013, this became the UAS Integration Office,
with Aviation Safety and Air Traffic personnel
combined into one office.

However, it took over a year to fully establish
the office due to difficulties with creating a
hybrid organization for an emerging technology.
FAA is still working on the necessary internal
agreements to establish roles and
responsibilities between the UAS Integration
Office and other FAA lines of business.

At the same time, FAA is behind in meeting
requirements of the FAA Modernization and Reform
Act of 2012, which calls for FAA to safely
integrate UAS into the NAS by September 2015.

For example, FAA has neither completed the requirements
to establish six test ranges, which were due in 2012,
nor provided Congress with a comprehensive UAS
integration plan, which was due by February 2013. FAA
states that problems in meeting the act’s requirements
are due to the complexity of the problem, privacy
issues, and unresolved coordination issues with other
Federal agencies.

In
addition, FAA must resolve a number of UAS specific
safety issues. While UAS capabilities have improved,
their ability to detect, sense, and avoid other air
traffic is limited. Although UAS are now operating in
the NAS, FAA has not developed standard air traffic
procedures for safely co-managing them with manned
aircraft.

The FAA must continue to work with other Federal
agencies and the aerospace industry to establish
certification standards, obtain reliable safety
data, address privacy concerns, and align changes
with its capital investments. It is expected that
the aerospace industry investing over $89 billion in
UAS technology over the next 10 years.